razing pyres
by Lilac's Garden of Inspiration
Summary: It's bad news when Hawk Moth manages to akumatize anyone; it's worse news when that someone is a kwami. When affront on Marinette's behalf leads to Tikki getting akumatized into the warrior-avenger goddess Durga, Marinette must act fast to save Paris before Hawk Moth and his newest pawn bring the city to the ground. [Temporary alternate Miraculous for Marinette. xpostd @ ao3 tumblr
1. The Pyre, Set

It's that same thing again, seems like everyone else thinks 'ooh, you can't possibly know what she's gone through!' It's _absolutely fine_ for her to be petty, callous, cruel, downright narcissistic, but the second I dare to do well by others, 'no, you can't do that, that's not fair to them!' Well, please, make up your mind, what can and can't I do, oh do tell me. By now I'm seething, so done with people today, I barely take notice that I've begun walking home, ignoring people shouting after me, and focusing on what I can feel of Tikki's warm presence.

By the time I'm walking through the bakery doors, I'm no longer radiating rage and loathing towards people, and I stiltedly greet my parents and retreat upstairs. As soon as I'm in my room, I let Tikki out of my purse and lay down in bed, "Oh Marinette..." The little god sighed, and flew up to nuzzle herself into the crook of my neck, "What should I do Tikki? I- I'm not s-sure what I should do anymore.." The kwami made cooed softly, and leaned in towards me a little more. I gazed down towards her with misty eyes, "Thank you for being here with me Tikki..."

* * *

The kwami and hero spoke softly for the better part of an hour, before Marinette fell into an emotionally exhausted sleep with the turmoil of her day catching up with her. The little god looked suspiciously around, waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for Hawk Moth to take advantage of her partner. Finally deeming it safe enough to drift over to Marinette's desk, Tikki sat down heavily beside the girl's open sewing box, which lay on top of a sketch of a ribbon accessory for something. Tikki picked up a fairly sized sewing needle that lay apart from the rest, and moved to push it back into the tomato shaped pin cushion. As she did so, so lost in thought, she failed to notice the aura of tainted magic fill the air as an akuma winged through the skylight above Marinette.

The barely-sentient magic butterfly hesitated as it hovered; there were two possibilities for it to serve its master.. but who? The one that had called it's master in the first place had seemed to calm, but the other... The other was just beginning to get unhappy, downright angry, and called to the akuma with promises of power, fulfilling that which its master sought. In a split second it made its choice, and fluttered on silent wings down to the desk.

The little cosmic being sat there, consumed by her thoughts, gazing at the metal needle between her paws, not noticing the corrupted magic settle itself onto and into the needle she held, nor the mask of energy crowning her. "It's sad that no-one appreciates what she does, isn't it? Don't you want to be able to help her, Durga, that one so precious to you? Help her feel appreciated by her foolish peers?" With deep conviction, Tikki nodded, "Good," the villain crooned to his newest pawn, "Good, Durga, you may call me Hawk Moth. You know what I seek in return for power?" The kwami chuckled rather darkly, "The miraculouses of the Ladybug and Black Cat, yes, Hawk Moth, I know what you seek. When I get my vengeance, the heroes will come. When they do, you will be repaid." Tikki rose in the air, magic flashing around her form, changing from the small size of a kwami, to the stature of a goddess. The now-woman smirked wickedly, looking at herself. Tall, dark and ethereally beautiful, bedecked in crimson and blood red robes, black skulls dotted across the drapey fabric, the crowned Durga stood proud, a gleaming ranseur standing a head shorter than her, tarnished steel flashing in the afternoon light.

Stepping lightly, with grace belying her size, the statuesque dark goddess moved up to her charge. Running the back of a stiletto-like nail down the sleeping girl's cheek, Durga crooned again, feeling the last remnants of that sweet, light, creation magic twine around her changed power. With a feather-light kiss to the forehead, the goddess was on the hunt, and her former avatar slept, unaware as of yet to the seal, and unbeknownst, creation magic warring with the destruction magic seeking to absorb it.


	2. Magic Leaves Impressions

Marinette twitched in her sleep, before jolting upright. Something not unlike Hawk Moth's twisted magic had been near or around her- and she wasn't an akuma? She took stock of herself and her surroundings: she was back at home, she had her phone, her purse and book bag, she heard her mother humming as she finished the soup Tom had started early in the morning, she heard birdsong, and- and screaming. There was an Akuma somewhere. "Tikki?"

She received no answer, and the unsettled feeling intensified, "Tikki?" She tried again, "Are you alright?" Again she received no verbal answer, but that air of foreboding clouding her room seemed to, maybe, point at a single answer.

An answer she hoped wasn't the case.

An answer she dared hope wasn't true

An answer that she knew in her deepest heart, was a truly bad thing.

With no kwami, there was no Ladybug. With Luck and Creation corrupted, who knew how the tide of battle would fair? Chat Noir alone wouldn't be enough, the empowered boy was just that, a powered-up avatar of a primordial force.

Marinette's panic grew, and she knew she had to be fast and find Fu before the akumatized Tikki did.


	3. The Match, Dropped

Durga stared down in triumph, those pathetic children were still at school, and were easily cornered, boxed in. A little luck for her, misfortune for them, that the windows and doors rusted shut. Waving her ranseur, she conjured a pair of snarling ligers and an abyssally dark minotaur made of crackling red and black energy, "Kali, Sekhmet, Asterion... Bring me those that I desire vengeance upon!" And she thrust her arm down, bringing the tip of the spear to the middle of courtyard beneath her. "Seek, my children, and bring them before me!" She cackled as the ants fled, right into her trap. "Chloe Bourgeois, Adrien Agreste... Soon, you will know what you have wrought upon yourselves..."

Her energy creations leapt into action, roaring and bellowing. The fleeing students found no respite, with the doors and windows refusing to open. The minotaur stomped around the first floor, while his sisters sowed chaos on the floors above, all three beings bringing doors off of the hinges, and causing panic among the trapped school.

Unfortunately for them, at the time, Mme Bustier's class had been confined in the Library, for now unassailed by Durga's forces. But they could hear the screams of terror, and could only imagine what happened to the unfortunate souls who'd faced her wrath.

Adrien grimaced as Chloe tightened her grip on his arm; all around him, he saw the resigned expressions of his peers, his teacher. Right now there was no Ladybug, no Chat Noir. He couldn't exactly duck away and transform, not with there being people in the library.


	4. The Spark, Growing

As she ran out of her home, tossing a quick 'I'll be back soon' to her busy parents, the first thing she saw when she rounded the corner was what she assumed Tikki's akumatized form looked like, a tall woman in dark red robes and armour, tied back, dark, nearly black hair, holding a trident, sending bolts of red and black energy into the courtyard at her school- that, that was not good. She had to hurry.

And hurry she did, when she arrived, nearly breathless at the old Guardian's shop, thankfully just as a customer was leaving. When he saw her, it wasn't an understatement to say he was little on the shocked side. "Is everything alright Marinette? You're in quite a hurry." Marinette frowned slightly, mulling over the ways she could ask her question, unthinkingly speaking aloud "Master, what would happen if Tikki got akumatized?"

Fu stopped for a moment, on his way over to his kitchen, turning back to the young heroine, looking grimly at her. "Those would be high stakes, Marinette, very high stakes." She met his grim look with one of her own, "I know, master, is there anything that I can possibly do?" He shook his head, and said nothing for a moment, turning back on his heel to go to his kitchen, and Wayzz popped out of the phonograph, about to fly after his master, when Fu merely raised a hand, and the kwami stopped in his tracks, looking shocked but expecting of this outcome. The little turtle god floated over to the worried Marinette, and set himself down on her shoulder, offering a comforting weight.

What she and his master would come to decide would greatly impact how Hawk Moth's schemes would play out in the future, knowing a new miraculous or two would be on the playing field.

* * *

When the Old Guardian reappeared, there had been screaming from the streets, and rumbling, not unlike an earthquake or a stampede, and the two miraculous wielders shared an alarmed glance at each other and the old phonograph that held a precious secret. 'We may not have time enough to settle this.' Marinette's grimace deepened, and she sighed quietly, sitting in fidgety silence, before Wayzz's voice broke her out of her reverie "... In addition to the Fox and Bee, we may have to use one of the Zodiac Miraculouses..." She startled, not expecting the answer, even as Fu thought about what he had said, "You know as well as I do that that could herald bigger problems than Hawk Moth, but all the same, that may be our only solution..." He trailed off, and Marinette set her shoulders, "Master, would I be able to use another miraculous?"

He looked contemplative, perhaps that may have been too forward a proposal, and again she found herself speaking before thinking, "... I want to help Tikki, I don't know what the other miraculous can do, or what her akumatized form can do- she's done so much for and with me, and it almost feels like a betrayal to ask, but..." She trailed off, closing her eyes to prevent the forming tears from falling, "But I feel like I have to do something- anything to help get her back."


	5. The Fire, Fed

The library doors rattled and shook as whatever was on the other side crashed against it, trying to knock the doors inwards. Around the room, students were huddled in front of shelves, under tables, and as Adrien swept his gaze around, he saw Alix laying on top of a book shelf languidly in spite of the atmosphere of terror around her, teasing at an absolutely freaked out Kim.

Whatever was outside rammed itself into the doors again, sending a fine dusting of plaster down, and making several people yelp in fright. There was a bellow outside, and the doors got battered. A cracking noise was heard and before long, with a roar of triumph what looked to be a minotaur broke into the library.

* * *

From her place barnacled onto his arm, Adrien heard Chloe frantically calling her father, and for a moment Adrien was worried, what would happen if Mayor Bourgeois picked up? As if sensing the rising fear in the room, the giant bull-man began stalking around, steps shaking shelves, and Adrien could see Alix looking considerably less smug from her perch.

A low cackle made many whip their heads around to the door, and those many pale. Adrien too, turned, and too, paled; standing between two massive ligers was an inhumanly tall and beautiful woman. "Ah, Asterion dear, I had thought that was you..." She all but purred at her monster. The minotaur, Asterion, huffed and spoke in a deep, gravelly timbre to his mother, "I did what you commanded, shall I handle the rest?" The akuma- for she could be nothing else- leaned against her trident, a gentle amusement colouring her features, "No dear, you've done well, I think Sekhmet and Kali would appreciate doing something too." The two ligers growled their assent and prowled forwards, keeping some distance between them.

At that moment Chloe got through to her father, and began to loudly talk to him about how another akuma is attacking the school, Ladybug and Chat Noir, her BFFs, were MIA and- she shrieked, as one of the ligers materialized beside her, and Adrien shot a quick glace to his other side, sure enough, the other liger was there. In a deft swoop, the cats separated Chloe from him and scruffed the both of them, dragging the pair before their mistress, kicking and screaming in the case of Chloe.


	6. Adding Fuel To The Pyre

Nino grimaced, Alya, bless her heart, looked half-terrified, half-exhilarated, and quite like she wanted to race off after the (very) smug akuma that had nabbed the two blondest, richest kids in their class. That would have been difficult under the best of circumstances, given that they group had a decent, almost 20 minute, head start on them. Nino would like to add that the evil, evil looking harpy guarding the door did not add to his 'best case scenario' list. Created by the tall, terrifying akuma, the harpy she dubbed Minerva, seemed far to happy at the prospect of drawing blood from her quarry.

"Nino.." Alya hissed, trying not to garner their warden's attention, "Where do you think Ladybug and Cat Noir are? It's not like them to not be here already..." He gave her a look, "Who says they aren't dealing with the akuma as we speak?" Alya was surprisingly smug for a person in a potentially dangerous hostage situation. "The time frame, mostly. See, 'cause usually one or both have done something that disrupts the akuma; I'm fairly sure that hasn't happened yet."

She... she had a point, as loathe as he was to admit it, her superhero stalking came in kinda handy at times like this.

* * *

Alya felt perturbed. As Rena she could do something! If only Ladybug or Trixx were here... She could help- draw the akuma's attention while the school got away, or create illusions of Chloe and Adrien, the akuma's prey! She groaned, feeling restless, helpless, hopeless.

At the noise, the harpy perked and whirled around. Sanguine, raptor eyes peering around the room, analyzing its occupants, marking her targets.

Minerva moves quietly, menacingly towards a cowering Rose and Juleka. "My my," her voice is low too, smoky with a dangerous, predatory quality, "What pretty chickies you are, my dears..." And she doesn't get closer than three feet to the petrified girls when Alix, crazy, ballsy, brave, Alix throws herself off of her bookcase perch. With a squawk that Alya thinks she'll never forget, the harpy is unbalanced, and Max and Nathaniel are free to herd the girlfriends away from the, well, harpy.

That brave, stupid, courageous move wasn't without its own cost. Minerva dragged the pink haired girl to her, digging talons that just miss skin, and the bird-woman snarls, a nasty look on her face. Alya's heart leaps to her throat as Alix braces her forearms in front of her face, ducking her head, preparing for the worst.


End file.
